Johnson makes gaffes on all fronts

Boris Johnson, the outspoken shadow higher education minister, was under siege yesterday after committing four gaffes in a few anarchic hours of the Tory conference.

Mr Johnson was besieged by dozens of reporters, photographers and TV cameramen after blundering into controversies on everything from school dinners to Muslim extremism.

After holing up in the conference press office for half an hour, he eventually made a break for freedom, surrounded by a media scrum. "Oh God, it's like Liverpool all over again," despaired a Tory staffer with memories of a previous controversy - when Mr Johnson visited the city to apologise, after the magazine he edited accused residents of "wallowing" in grief after the death of the Iraq hostage Kenneth Bigley.

In August he was forced to say sorry to Papua New Guinea after linking its people to cannibalism. By yesterday, his woes - and his need for contrition - had greatly increased. "Do you not think you've slightly over-egged this?" he said as he ran from reporters and camera crews.

Mr Johnson slighted Jamie Oliver, days after David Cameron had praised the TV chef in his opening speech to conference. Mr Oliver had done more to improve school food than the government had, Mr Cameron said.

Mr Johnson told a fringe meeting he would ban sweets in schools, but added: "If I was in charge I would get rid of Jamie Oliver and tell people to eat what they like." He said: "Mothers have been driven to pushing pies through fences. The solution is not to provide healthy stuff."

He later claimed he had been misinterpreted and thought Mr Oliver was "a national saint". "The BBC are completely wrong," he said, adding: "What I said was 'let them eat liver and bacon'."

Mr Johnson, who was recently criticised by the RAC for allowing his sons to share the front seat of a sports car he was driving, also told a fringe meeting safety seats for children in cars were "utterly demented", adding: "When I was growing up we all bounced around like peas in a rattle - did it do us any harm?"

He then said: "As a Scot, Gordon Brown will find it hard to convince people in England he should be prime minister."

Finally, in a separate fringe meeting he told Tories that giving power to local communities could result in sharia law. Prefacing his comment with the prescient prediction: "I may be in trouble for saying this", he told the audience that while he was broadly in favour of localism, there was a complication in "the issue of people's failure to feel British, especially large chunks of the Muslim population."

He added: "Supposing Tower Hamlets or parts of Bradford were to become governed by religious zealots believing in that system. Are we ready for complete autonomy if it means sharia law? I believe we should make people feel more British first, before encouraging more balkanisation and multiculturalism."

Earlier this week, Mr Johnson said he would be "doing no more apologising" - but as he made his escape, he pleaded for understanding. "This is ridiculous ... I want to go," he said. "I have done nothing wrong to anybody."

At a glance

· Attacked Jamie Oliver's school meals campaign after David Cameron had praised it

· Attacked new child safety regulations for cars

· Offended Scots, saying Gordon Brown may not be accepted as prime minister